May 24, 2011

Greenfire denies that "neglected property maintenance" played role in Liberty Warehouse problems

The day-to-day saga of the Liberty Warehouse continued today with an update from the Triangle Business Journal's Monica Chen, who reported an update on the building's condition that emanated from Greenfire Development head Michael Lemanski.

In the story, published this afternoon at TBJ, a "drainage system" with design issues and accumulated "deterioration" problems described as not visible under ordinary inspection were blamed, though a final analysis is still due in several weeks. And Lemanski tells the paper that the roof collapse had nothing to do with any management issues or failures on the downtown developer's part:

Lemanski had a response to chatter of Greenfire’s management of the buildings that some say contributed to the roof cave-in: “There have been rumors that there have been neglected property maintenance, but that has not been determined to be a cause of the event.”

If that remains the case after the final data is all in, it'd be an important rebuttal to a message that's emanated in the public sphere in recent weeks -- though an explanation that will nonetheless seem to have to overcome public opinion and the perception, at least, of Occam's Razor.

After all, the roof collapse weekend before last came just a few weeks after a portion of the building was condemned by the City for, as The Durham News' Virginia Bridges put it, a "rotted roof and excessive water penetration," with local non-profit Liberty Arts saying that they had to evacuate water from their area at every rainfall.

Coincidence, the late April complaints and partial condemnation, and the May roof collapse?

If it should be the case when all's said and done, with luck like that, might I suggest the folks at Greenfire might want to avoid buying any lottery tickets anytime soon?

If there was deferred maintenance then Greenfire is liable and the insurance company won't have to pay out. If there was a system failure that they didn't know about the insurance company has to pay out.

Whether Greenfire, their insurers or even the city, you can bet the buck passing is going to be happening fast and furious now.
Unfortunately it'll likely be the tenants or the taxpayers who will lose out at the end of this exercise in denying responsibility.

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